The present invention relates to a rectangular multiple connector for use in an interface between miniature electronic appliances, and more particularly to a thin and flat multiple connector.
Recently, electronic appliances have been miniaturized to realize, for example, very thin personal computers of the A4 book size (210.times.297 mm), pocket-book size electronic appliances, and the like. With their miniaturization, very thin and narrow flat multiple connectors have been required for use in information interchange between electronic appliances and external circuits. These connectors might have dimensions such that the length is of the order of 100 mm and the width is of the order of 4 mm. FIG. 3 schematically illustrates one example of such female connector commonly used for the information interchange.
The connector shown in FIG. 3 consists of a flange 5 and an alignment fitting 4. The alignment fitting 4 comprises a contact support insulator 2 formed with an elongated rectangular aperture 21 with contacts 1 arranged in two parallel rows therein, and a connector shell 3 surrounding the contact support insulator 2. When a mating connector (not shown) connected through an interface cable to an external circuit is inserted into the elongated rectangular aperture 21 of the miniature multiple connector, the contacts 1 comes into contact with the contact of the mating connector to permit the external circuit to connect to the internal circuit of an electronic appliance connected to the tails 11 of the contacts 1.
The connector shell 3 cooperates with the connector shell of the mating connector inserted therein to prevent possible undesirable interference caused by external electromagnetic noise. At the same time the connector shell 3 resists torsional or bending forces from the mating connector so as to prevent any deformation of the contact support insulator 2 and hence any displacement of the contacts 1, thereby preventing any break in the electronic connection between aligned pair of contacts of the multiple connector and the mating connector.
In order to obtain a thin and flat connector as described above, it is required to make the width S.sub.1 of the contact support insulator 2 as narrow as possible and the thickness of the sheet metal from which the connector shell 3 is fabricated should be as thin as possible. Therefore, instead of the diecasting process which is difficult to obtain thin products, the press-forming method has been used for this purpose. According to this process, a sheet metal is punched and bent to obtain a component of the connector comprising a connector shell 3 and a flange 5. On the other hand, a contact support insulator 2 is integrally formed with a flange inner member 51 and firmly fitted in the connector shell 3 so that the flange inner member 51 is also fitted in the flange 5.
In accordance with this method, by appropriately selecting the thickness of the sheet metal, the thickness of the connector can be reduced to meet the requirement of the flat connector. However, as the sheet metal used to fabricate the connector shell 3 is decreased, the rigidity of the connector shell 3 is unavoidably reduced. Eventually, the connector shell 3 becomes susceptible to torsional or bending forces from the mating connector and is unable to prevent the deformation of the contact support insulator 2. Consequently, the deformation of the contact support insulator 2 causes the contacts to be displaced and breaks the electrical connection between the aligned pairs of contacts of the connector and the mating connector, which is a decisive failure for a connector. Accordingly, the method of the prior art relying upon the use of a thinner sheet metal is unable to produce a reliable connector thinner than a certain extent.